Iraqi PM Vows Immediate Liberation of Mosul
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said a forthcoming military operation will recapture the city of Mosul from the terrorist groups.
Speaking in a gathering of military commanders and voluntary forces, Abadi pledged that the Iraqi flag will be soon hoisted in the city of Mosul, which has been seized by the Daesh (also known as ISIL) terrorist group since June 2014.
Victory is imminent, Arabic-language al-Forat news quoted him as saying.
The prime minister also threw his weight behind the popular forces, known as Hashed al-Shaabi, stressing that any action to undermine that organization will be a blow to the Iraqi government.
Earlier in February, Commander of Iraq’s Badr Brigade Hadi al-Ameri had emphasized that Hashed al-Shaabi will definitely take part in a long-awaited military operation to recapture Mosul, in spite of voices of dissent by certain parties.
Daesh seized Mosul in June 2014 and has held Iraq's second city largely unopposed for months as the country's security forces battled the extremists in other areas.
Iraq turned to popular forces or Hashed al-Shaabi in 2014 to help counter a Daesh (ISIL) onslaught that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad, and they have played a key role in the fight against the terrorists.
The Daesh militants made advances in much of northern and western Iraq in summer 2014, after capturing swaths of northern Syria.
However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the popular forces, who rushed to take arms after top Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for fight against the militants, have blunted the edge of the Daesh offensive.